cruisinon2

Look Ma! My guitar sounds like a spaceship in a bad sci-fi flick...

30+ years and countless guitars, and I've never seen the nut anywhere but under the knob.

There's nothing magical about the pots... the model and alt tuning knobs are just selector switches. The brains of the guitar is the main board, which as already mentioned requires power. Either from a battery, or supplied from a compatible Line 6 device (Helix, POD etc) via the VDI cable.

Except that's not what he's doing... he repeatedly whined about having to reach around the back of the L2T to reach the volume knob every time he wanted to turn down, then proceeded to get all indignant when it was explained just how wildly unnecessary that is. This entire thread made zero sense from the jump.

Who knew the quarantine would crank out so many philosophers? ;)

Been in and out of the backcountry my whole life. After dark I've heard some weird $hit off in the distance over the years... sometimes not so distant. Never seen one, but Squatch is out there...;)

Here's the thing with battery life estimates... they're all a fantasy, period... and the device in question is almost irrelevant. The same way the mileage estimates that car manufacturers put on the sticker are a fantasy. Under optimal conditions, don't use the A/C, and only drive downhill with a constant 30mph tail wind... blah, blah, blah. Those estimates exist to make the product seem more impressive than it actually is... in a word, advertising. But real-world results and "best case scenario" estimates are never, ever the same thing. Life simply isn't that convenient. I never got the full 8 hours of use from my original unit even when it was brand new... and I didn't expect to, just going on experience. I got about 6.5 hrs, which probably dwindled to around 6 hours or so after a year of regular use. Enter the firmware "fix", and that 6hrs was cut in half, not capped at 80% capacity, as claimed. It's simple math...80% of the then-current 6 hour life should have given me 4.8 hours of use, give or take. The reality proved to be significantly less. Why, I have no idea. In the absence of any real info, I can only guess that it's because the 80% figure is a fantasy as well. And the fact that my replacement unit is behaving similarly, supports that assumption. It lasts slightly longer than the battery that has some miles on it, but I'm not even hitting the aforementioned 4.8 hrs, nevermind the new estimate of 6 hours. Now I've said it before, and I'll say it again... customer service was very nice to me, and replaced the thing no questions asked. However the replacement had already been saddled with the same handicap as the original unit... so it's not exactly what you'd call a "win". I understand that it was a liability issue...but a "fix" that hobbles every unit sold is not a fix. It's a cheap way to satisfy a bunch of lawyers.

L6 replaced mine following the update chaos, and the new one has the exact same issues...I mean it lasts slightly longer than the old one, but we're talking minutes, not hours. Ymmv, but I'll be shopping for something else in the near future. It's a shame... it works fine and it sounds great, but the battery life is now a joke.

As a survivor (somehow...) of some exceptionally stupid uncivilized years, which included a solid decade of live performances whilst proudly declaring "If it's too loud, you're too old!", and never wearing any sort of hearing protection, I can assure you of two things with the utmost certainty: 1) If you're actually causing physical pain in your ear(s) then yes... you ARE indeed playing loud. Too loud. Period. and 2) You are doing irreparable damage to your hearing. The effects are gradual. You won't start to notice it for a while, probably years from now. That's problem #1. The effects are also cumulative, and that's problem #2. At some point you will start to lose the ability to hear certain frequencies entirely...by then the damage is done, and there is no fix...you won't get them back.

You can't.

I'm not familiar with that particular one, but I will say this... while the Helix reverbs are perfectly usable for typical everyday applications, if you're looking for vast, lush, Strymon Big Sky-type sounds, without a hint of "digital-ness" in the trails, then you might be a little disappointed. For those kinds of sounds you really need a dedicated reverb pedal... one that boasts an ample supply of DSP, and uses every last bit of it to produce nothing but reverbs. Just recently, quarantine boredom and a large vat of bourbon resulted in the purchase of a Ventris Dual Reverb... it's not cheap, but it's an absolute beast. Money well spent, lol

Speculation about a new Variax has been going on for years now, and given that it's been 5-6 years since the last firmware update of any significance it's pretty safe to say that development of the current platform ceased some time ago. But it's definitely not the first time they've blown out refurb-ed Variaxes...if or when there will be a new version is anybody's guess.

You can't "de-twang" a Telecaster...;) Seriously though, if it's the sound of the SG itself that you're after (as opposed to whatever amp he's using in the video), but you're playing an entirely different style of guitar, then there's really little to nothing that the Helix can do to help you. What are you playing on?

Unless your current guitar strap is of overwhelming sentimental value, I say just get a new one that's wide enough to accommodate the box...

If you're really intent on getting a Variax, used ones are not hard to find... they're all over eBay.

Same reason everything else on earth is currently moving at the speed of Dutch elm disease. The world is largely closed, and even places that are open have skeleton crews working, many of them from home. Even Amazon is taking forever to deliver stuff, whereas before the world ended they were shipping you crap before you knew you wanted it. I've had numerous emails to various entities go unanswered over the last month+...it's not a surprise.

I could be wrong, but I seem to recall someone "official" saying a while back, that the warranty specifically for the expression pedal issue on the LT is eternal... don't think it matters when it was purchased.

This has to be a record... this thread died nearly 7 years ago.

A problem that you brought up. Not once, but twice... in separate posts. Generally speaking, when someone goes out of their way to voice the same concern repeatedly, it suggests that they're looking for help solving that specific problem. So how else are we supposed to respond? We're not mind readers. You also indicated that you thought the answer might be found with some other gear, yet what you already have is top shelf, and the work around is brain-dead simple... so we suggested the simplest solution to the stated concern, one that is virtually effortless and wouldn't cost you a dime, yet somehow that's a problem? Now since what you evidently meant was "I don't like this thing anymore, what else is there? ", here are your options: 1) Good studio-quality headphones...I know this doesn't interest you, so moving on. 2) Powered studio monitors. Choices are endless, in myriad sizes and power levels. The size of the room and how loud you really want to get will determine what you need. 3) A traditional guitar cabinet and power amp. An equally endless number of choices here. 4) Plugging Helix into the front end of a combo amp... no shortage of combos to choose from either, but personally I wouldn't recommend going this route. But it can be done. 5) A single FRFR powered speaker, which you already have. 6) The Line 6 Powercab, which can function (more or less) as either number (3) or (5).

And you can be done with it... all you have to do is make the decision to stop reaching around the back of the amp... because it simply isn't necessary to control your volume that way. You're making this way more complicated than it needs to be. Pick a position on the L2T's volume knob somewhere between 9 and 12 o'clock and leave it there. Forever. Glue it in place if you like (don't do that...I'm just trying to drive home the point ;) ). Since you're not moving the gear back and forth between different acoustic environments, you'll never need to touch it again for the rest of your days. Then adjust your volume from the Helix, as needed. That's all there is to it. No other speaker(s) will make it any simpler... no matter what you do, there will always be two volume knobs involved. One on the Helix, and the other on whatever is driving the speaker(s). Which one you choose to fiddle with is entirely up to you. And I promise, you will have plenty of headroom with which to annoy your wife. What I've described above is exactly what I do at every gig, playing with a hard- hitting, mostly deaf drummer... so unless you're really intent on rattling windows in the next zip code, you will have no problems.

YouTube is overflowing with Helix tutorials. I suggest Jason Sadites' channel..he's got some excellent Helix-specific stuff for beginners, covering all the basics you'll need to become familiar with to use any modeler effectively. They're not guitar amps... the approach to creating your tones is fundamentally different than what you're used to, and not particularly intuitive for a beginner, unless you happen to have some studio experience mic-ing and recording real amps. Modelers force you to think like a recording engineer, not a guitar player.

Research is nice, but the "perceived wisdom" regarding any particular knob setting is exactly that...perceived. Ultimately it's what your ears tell you that matters. When adjusted to the same final volume level with the L2T's volume control, if you can actually tell the difference between having the Helix master volume knob red-lined, or at noon, or anywhere else for that matter...then salúd, you've got better ears than most. But I'll bet money that in a blind test you wouldn't be able to tell the difference, no matter what any theoretical "best" setting dictates. I've been using an L2T as a stage monitor for years now, and once set for a given scenario, I never touch the volume knob again... Helix master volume starts at noon, making minor up/down adjustments as needed. Works just fine, and I've never had more consistent sound from night to night in nearly 30 years of gigging.

This is news? If all guitars sounded the same, we'd all have just one and call it a day...

It's a common problem in Variax Land, and with piezo pickups in general. Some guitars seem to have it worse than others. The tone you're using can contribute to it as well...high gain will make it worse. Try turning down individual string volumes in Workbench, sometimes it helps.

This is all any fixed-bridge guitar ever has... Set-ups, while not particularly difficult to do, will require a basic understanding of a guitar's mechanics. It's a balancing act between several different adjustments, each of which affects the others, to a greater or lesser degree: string tension, truss rod tension (neck relief) , the vibrating length of each individual string (intonation), and string height (action) ... the latter being adjusted by raising or lowering the entire bridge, individual saddles, or both depending on the design. It's likely that your guitar will require multiple adjustments... most do when things get out of whack, hence the balancing act. If you're totally unfamiliar with what to do, take it to someone who is, otherwise you're likely to wreck something. Any competent local tech or luthier will do. If you want to learn to do it yourself, there are numerous books on the subject, and/or YouTube tutorials that can walk you through the basics... but I'd experiment on a guitar that you don't care much about at first, just in case. It's a good skill to have, and in the long run will save you a small fortune in repair costs... but regardless, telling you what to do from afar without actually seeing the instrument really isn't possible. I know you want lower action on the higher frets, but: A) There's more than one way to get there, and B) Without knowing what else is going on with the guitar, guessing at what adjustment(s) to make could easily cause more problems than it'll solve. No two set-ups are identical, and the wrong guess sight-unseen may cause irreparable damage, particularly over-tightening a truss rod.